Jessica Lynn sinking

Cuts in hull hint that trawler was sunk on purpose, leading to mess on beaches

LORRAINE THOMPSONSpecial to The Record

Published Tuesday, April 21, 2009

The Jessica Lynn, the boat whose parts are washing up on St. Johns County beaches and creating safety and environmental hazards, likely was scuttled earlier this month off Ponte Vedra.

Parts of the hull that washed up on Anastasia State Park show cuts, perhaps from a chainsaw, adding a new ripple to the sinking of the Jessica Lynn, according to officials who were part of the cleanup effort.

A vessel named Jessica Lynn that was under "dead vessel tow," which means it could not get under way on its own, sank on April 11 after its towline broke and the shrimp trawler started to break up, according to the Coast Guard.

A spokesman for the Coast Guard would not say that the boat washing up on the shore now is the same boat, but the coincidence of having the same name in the same typeface and other similarities strongly suggest that it is the same boat that sank.

The captain of the Cathleen Chance, another shrimp trawler, alerted the Coast Guard on April 11 that the trawler it had been towing, the Jessica Lynn, was breaking up in seas about 10 miles off Ponte Vedra. Because the boat was not carrying fuel it posed no environmental threat, so the Coast Guard did not investigate, although it did issue an alert to marine traffic in the area.

St. Johns County work crews worked Monday to remove debris from county beaches. Large pieces of the hull along with wood, fiberglass and Styrofoam chunks are littering St. Augustine Beach.

"We're just doing our job," said St. Johns County Beach coordinator Billy Zeits, whose crews are leading the clean-up effort.

While the wood pieces can be hazards to vehicles, the Styrofoam poses threats to the shore birds, whose nesting season is in progress, and to the federally protected sea turtles that are nesting near the dunes. Although the official turtle nesting season runs from May 1 to October 31, two turtle nests were deposited in early April, one on St. Augustine Beach and the other at Crescent Beach.

Technically, it is the responsibility of the boat's owner to clean up the beach, but the county is not waiting to determine who that is because of the safety concerns.

Karen Pan, a county spokeswoman said, "The county certainly would pursue obtaining reimbursement from the owner" once that person is known.

The Florida Fish and Wildlife office in Tallahassee confirmed that the current salt water license holder for the Jessica Lynn is Corey Thomas and that the owner is Patricia May of Neptune Beach. However, Jessica May, daughter of Patricia May, said that her mother had sold the boat to Bo King of Mayport about eight or nine months ago.

"They didn't take good care of it," said Jessica May.

May added that she thought the boat had been resold recently for parts and that the new owner was in the process of trying to sink it when it started to break up.

Neither Thomas nor King could not be reached for comment.

ABOUT THE JESSICA LYNN

* Commercial fishing vessel

* Built in 1971 by St. Augustine Boat Builders.

* Wood construction, 68.1 ft. in length with a hull depth of 8.8 feet and a hull breadth of 20.3 feet.